"You couldn't live in a house with nine inches of water on the bottom floor."

He is one of many who have criticised the authorities' handling of the crisis and said there has been "very bad coordination by the police and by the Environment Agency".

"We're not being informed. We're not being kept together," he said.

"I think it's all very well for politicians in Westminster to send condolences and say that they're going to do things, but the issue is now that we're reaping failure of something like about 50 years of bad maintenance and short-term policies.

"And it's individual suffering of people having to cope...I've seen farming friends pushed to the brink of disaster on their farms."

Around 5,000 properties across the country have already been affected by flooding, but this number is set to rise as the next wave of storms approaches.

WATERLOGGED: Floodwaters surround a property in Moorland [GETTY]

The Met Office currently has 302 flood alerts in place across Britain as well as 165 more serious flood warnings.

The South West has two severe flood warnings in place, meaning there is a real danger to life.

David Cameron chaired a meeting of Cobra, the Government's emergency committee, last night and today pledged another £30million on flood defence repairs, on top of £100million announced on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister insisted that “progress is being made” and said: “We've announced that we'll start dredging as soon as we can.

“We've got the Army helping out the Environment Agency, including in Somerset and other parts of the country.

"I spoke personally to the Gold commander running the operation.

“All of the things that we can do to help people - whether it's helping people get out of their homes, whether it's helping protect essential infrastructure, whether, as was the case yesterday, it's moving cattle off the land - we will do everything we can to help co-ordinate what is still a very difficult situation.”

The Met Office confirmed it has been the wettest December and January combined for more than 100 years, with rain falling on 23 out of 31 days in January across the UK.